Page 12 of Rejected by My Shadow Alpha (Mate to the Fallen #1)

Ruby

The blonde dye was starting to fade again.

I stared at Liora's hair under the morning light streaming through the window.

No matter how often I touched up the color, those silvery strands fought their way back like they were too proud to stay hidden or be erased.

I reached out and tucked a lock behind her ear.

She squirmed and mumbled something in her sleep, curled up under the faded wolf-print blanket she'd insisted on buying from the minimart last month.

At nearly seven, she had become more than just a spirited child.

She was a storm barely contained in a small, beautiful body.

What began as flickering lights when she was upset had grown into shattered mirrors, doors that slammed on their own, and wind that roared through closed windows.

Just last week, she'd gotten upset at the grocery store when a young pup dragged the last muffin on the shelf and accused her of cutting in line for muffins.

The air had crackled, and cold breezy wind began to drift in as she stared angrily at the pup, her hair flipping with the wind where it seemed the energy was coming from.

The temperature dropped so sharply that my breath clouded.

I had to drag her away before anyone could piece it together, laughing nervously and muttering something about a sudden change in the weather.

"You have to control your emotions, Liora," I said pointedly as we walked home. She didn't answer, but her silence said everything: losing the muffin stung more than my lecture did.

It was getting harder every day to keep her unnoticed.

Yesterday, Mrs. Feldman, an old, arthritic wolf who only came to the clinic when her joints screamed and wouldn't let her move, had caught a glimpse of Liora running out of the clinic.

"That hair," she'd muttered. "Silver as frost. Is she one of the blood-marked?"

My stomach had dropped. I smiled too quickly and lied too smoothly. "Oh, it's just dye. You know kids these days, all into the fantasy look."

Mrs. Feldman had squinted, unconvinced but too tired to argue.

I'd chosen Littleton because it was quiet, remote, and surrounded by woods and wary neighbors who kept to themselves.

But even here, whispers traveled. If anyone discovered what Liora truly was…

if word reached my father, Alpha Alfred, or worse, the remnants of the Lunaris Pack, then all I had done to keep her safe would shatter like glass underfoot.

I sighed and stared briefly out the window and observed that the wind outside had quieted.

Even the trees were still, as if waiting for something.

I was reorganizing the dried sage bundles in the clinic, chamomile for sleep, comfrey for bruising.

My fingers moved through the jars on muscle memory.

The herbs in the jar were for Alex, the rogue wolf who was brought in at my doorstep, torn and barely breathing.

I wasn't sure he'd survive, but I'd stitched him back from the brink, guided more by instinct than certainty. And he had survived. I recalled how he held my hand desperately, his expression pleading and insistent.

"Wolfbane22 is part of your secret network. Please tell him I am alive and fighting to stay alive."

Wolfsbane 22.

Our last conversation still echoed in my head.

The moment I heard his voice, low, warm, and rough like a storm smoothed by time, something inside me jolted.

My wolf had snapped to attention, drawn to him with a hunger I didn't understand.

I hated how deeply I wanted to keep listening.

I didn't even know him, not really, but somehow, his silence had said more than words, and it had left a mark I couldn't shake.

I'd asked him, carefully, maybe too carefully, if there was someone in his life now.

If anyone had managed to reach past the hurt he carried, and he'd dodged the question with polished deflection, saying something about staying focused on helping rogue wolves.

It had been so neat and practiced, but I'd read the silence behind his words.

The pain. The regret. Something deeper that he hadn't wanted to say.

Why did I care?

He was a stranger. He was a code name on a screen, a phantom ally in a world full of shifting loyalties and dead ends, but every time I read his words, my chest tightened, like I knew him and had known him before.

It was stupid. Dangerous. I didn't have space in my life for longing.

I had a daughter to protect and a past to outrun.

Still, when he said he regretted hurting someone…

when he said he'd make it right if he could…

My hand trembled slightly as I sealed a jar of calendula.

Why did that matter so much to me?

The bell at the front had jingled earlier. Nia was tending to a rogue wolf with a limp and a fever in the next room. I wondered if it was Liora or another patient. A crash. Then silence.

I stilled.

"Liora?" I called, my voice tight.

No answer.

I dropped the can and ran toward the back room, instincts rising like a blade unsheathed. The moment I pushed open the door, the air hit me, a clash of scents I didn't recognize, like smoke and mint. My wolf lunged to the surface.

The moment I pushed open the door, something slammed into me, an invisible force, dense and wrong, as if the room had just been breached by something vile. My wolf surged forward, muscles coiled, teeth on edge.

Someone had been here.

No…not just someone. It felt like something dark had seeped into the space, and its presence still clung to the air; thick and malevolent, like a shadow that refused to fade.

My pulse pounded as I felt the energy sharp and out of place, a lingering echo of something violent and unholy.

I didn't have time to question it because there on the floor, my baby girl lay still.

"Liora!"

I dropped to my knees. Her small frame trembled, convulsing lightly, blood trickling from her nose. Her skin was pale, lips tinged blue. Her breath came in ragged gasps. I pulled her into my lap, brushing damp hair from her forehead. Her silver roots were glowing faintly, pulsing with light.

"Liora, baby, I'm here. Stay with me."

Her eyelids fluttered. She groaned, barely conscious.

"Help!" I screamed, voice cracking. "Nia!"

I heard hurried footsteps, the soft clink of instruments being dropped, and then Nia burst through the doorway, her hands still stained from tending to the other wolf.

"What happened?" she demanded, already kneeling beside me.

"I…I don't know. She collapsed. She was fine, and then," my voice cracked again. "She's bleeding."

Nia's expression turned grave. She closed her eyes briefly, as though sensing the presence in the room.

Her gaze snapped to mine. "We need to move her. Now."

Together, we carried Liora to the clinic bed. Nia moved quickly, placing runes under her feet, checking her pulse and breath.

"Her vitals are failing," Nia murmured. "And something's wrong with her aura. It's darkened. Fading."

"What does that mean?" My voice was shrill, too loud. "Is it poison? A curse?"

Nia looked up at me, eyes grim. "A soul-binding curse."

My mouth went dry, unable to comprehend what Nia was saying. I shook my head, "No. Why would someone do such a thing? She's just a child!"

"It's dark, yes. It's done to unravel the body slowly from within." Nia hovered her hand over Liora's chest. "She's been targeted, Ruby."

My whole body trembled. "Targeted?" My voice rose, high and desperate. Who would do such a thing to a child? The weight of Nia's words crashed into me. "

"She's a threat," Nia said gently, almost apologetically, "to someone. This was premeditated, Ruby."

The room tilted. I grabbed the edge of the table to steady myself. The scent again, cedar wood and storm, faint but unmistakable, curled around the edges of my senses. There was something else, too. Mint. Smoke. Drew's…that one, I would never forget.

"I smelled something—someone," I whispered. "Whoever did this came from the woods. They were inside." My wolf snarled in my mind, pacing and bristling. "I know that scent. I know it, Nia."

She looked at me carefully. "Whose scent?"

I shook my head. "It can't be. He's dead. He died in a fire, in a car wreck, years ago." I backed away, gripping my arms. "Liora's father had that scent, but he is dead."

Nia didn't push for details, but her silence was heavy, thick with unspoken questions I wasn't ready to answer.

I stared at Liora's small, still form, her pale skin and silver lashes trembling faintly against her cheeks. Her hand lay limp in mine, warm and feverish. My fingers curled around hers like a lifeline, as if I could will some strength back into her fragile body with sheer desperation.

I couldn't breathe.

"Stay with me," I whispered, my voice cracking, my forehead pressed to her knuckles. "Please, baby. Please."

Terror gripped me like a vice. I had faced monsters: Drew, my father, his enforcers, the darkness of exile. But nothing compared to this. Nothing compared to watching my daughter slip away before my eyes and being powerless to stop it.

My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would crack open. Why her? Why now? A colder fear bloomed in my chest, twisting and relentless. Had someone recognized her? The silver hair, the sudden surges of power, had they been enough to give us away?

What if it wasn't just a random attack? What if someone from Drew's pack had discovered I was Alpha Alfred's daughter and decided to hurt my child to avenge Drew's death? This wasn't the sort of way my father could hurt me. He would rather kill the child than inflict a curse.

My wolf growled low, mournful, and protective, bristling with helpless fury. Was this their way of punishing me? Of making me pay?

I had never stopped looking over my shoulder, never let my guard down, but maybe it hadn't been enough.

Maybe the sins of my father had finally caught up with us.

Or worse, maybe Drew's death wasn't just something I had to grieve.

It was something I would be made to answer for.

I swallowed hard, trying to keep from unraveling completely.

Liora whimpered, barely audible, and my vision blurred again.

I couldn't lose her. I wouldn't lose her.

"I should've kept her closer. I should've left this town months ago," I said, shaking my head in helpless sorrow.

"You didn't know," Nia said gently.

"Nia," I choked, my voice a wreck, "there has to be something more. Anything."

Nia's face was grim, but her eyes softened. "Ruby," she said, her voice low and steady. "There's something you need to know."

I looked at her.

"This kind of curse can't be reversed by herbs or healing magic, not even by me."

The floor vanished under me.

"No," I said. "No, there has to be something. We'll go to the witch in Crescent Hollow or the seer beyond Ashwood."

"No," Nia said, firm now. "This curse is blood-bound. The only thing that can cleanse it is the presence and power of an alpha from her paternal bloodline."

I stared at her, uncomprehending. "What?"

"Only an alpha's blood from her paternal pack can stop the curse. A bond tied by lineage and dominance. The paternal line."

I stood frozen, my mind completely numb, but screaming with one question: how would I locate an alpha from a non-existent pack? Drew could have been my link to them, but he's dead. There was no one else. No alpha, no healer, no miracle that could reach across bloodlines and time to undo this curse.

I stared at Liora, her silver hair fanned across the pillow like a blade of light, still too bright even in illness. My little girl. My secret. My heart. And possibly, my loss.

A sob built in my throat, raw and suffocating. The past had already taken so much. Was it about to steal her, too? I gripped her hand tighter, afraid to let go, as though that simple touch was the only thing anchoring her here.

I didn't know how to fix this, and that terrified me.

I'd prepared for everything. I'd coded escape bags, hidden routes out of town, and forged documents and false names.

I'd hidden her hair, taught her to hide her strength, and drilled her on what to do if I ever didn't come back, but none of that mattered now because this spell, this attack, came from inside, from somewhere I couldn't predict and someone I hadn't seen.

It came from someone who had known who she was and who I was.

My wolf stirred, tense and restless, still haunted by those scents: cedar wood and storm, wild and clean, mingled with unfamiliar undertones that I couldn't place.

But that first note, I'd know anywhere. It was from Drew's bloodline, which meant someone from his old pack had found us, and they hadn't come to talk.

A fresh wave of dread curled through me like ice in my veins.

What if they were still watching? What if more were coming?

What if this was only the beginning? I had to leave.

We had to run again, but where could I go this time that would be far enough and safe enough?

What if moving her in this fragile state made it worse?

What if I made the wrong call and lost her because of it?

I bent over her and pressed a trembling kiss to her temple. "I'm so sorry, baby. I should've seen this coming. I should've done more. I should've kept you safe."

I held her and let the fear pour through me, swallowing every ounce of strength I had left. There was no one else coming to save us. There was only me, and I didn't know what to do.